[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   KEEP THE F-22 PRODUCTION LINE OPEN

  (Mr. GINGREY of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Speaker, the future of the F-22 will be 
decided in the coming weeks by the Obama administration. Congress has 
spoken. The National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal year 2009 
passed by Congress and signed by the President contained the funds 
necessary to continue with F-22 production. However, only a small 
portion of those funds have been obligated, and thus far, a go/no-go 
decision on the rest of the funds must be made immediately or the 
production line will begin shutting down.
  For the sake of our Nation's air superiority, we must not let this 
happen. The Air Force is still nearly 200 F-22s short of its stated 
requirement, a fact that we must not overlook as Russia and China 
develop Raptor-like technology. Moreover, over 100,000 jobs in our 
Nation are directly or indirectly tied to this program.
  For these reasons, nearly 100 of our colleagues have joined 
Representatives Kay Granger, Norman Dicks, David Scott, and myself in a 
bipartisan letter to President-elect Obama encouraging continued F-22 
production. I encourage all Members to show their support for the 
continued United States air dominance and keeping the F-22 production 
line open.

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